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When Sony Online Entertainment announced last night that it had lost several thousand customers' credit card numbers -- though the theft came weeks earlier, during the main attack affecting Sony's PlayStation Network and Qriocity services -- something didn't add up. Sony Online Entertainment had just one week earlier specifically said that its customers data was safe, because "SOE's systems and databases are separate from PSN's." So, how did SOE customer information leak if the "systems and databases" were different for PSN and SOE?

"While the two systems are distinct and operated separately, given that they are both under the Sony umbrella, there is some degree of architecture that overlaps," an SOE rep told Joystiq this afternoon. Speaking to the method used for breaching the information, the rep told us, "The intrusions were similar in nature," indicating that the same party perpetrated both thefts.

SOE also insisted once more that "This is NOT a second attack," and that yesterday's announcement was a result of "new information" that was discovered on May 1 "as part of our ongoing investigation of the external intrusion in April." It is still unknown when service will return to SOE's games, but the company says "it will be as soon as we are 100% confident that we can resume a safe and secure service."

I think these guys are bullshitting us. If its a different, independent network than it would require a separate attack. Even if they were coordinated to occur simultaneously, this sounds like then it qualifies as... a second attack.

Sony has officially announced the latest security breach, which affected Sony Online Entertainment and led to the outage of all related services. As well as apologizing, Sony has confirmed that it will be extending subscriptions, as well as a further "make good" plan.

Sony will be offering thirty day subscription extensions for its MMO users, and DC Universe Online players will also be getting a complimentary Batman-esque mask for their characters. The company said that it's working on something for Free Realms players, too.

There are 1,560,791 Australian PSN accounts that have been compromised in the attack, of which 280,000 had accompanying credit card details.

...

A report from The Australian, meanwhile, alleges that Sony Australia "has refused to provide an iron-clad guarantee that it destroys or permanently de-identifies users' outdated personal information", which in this country is a violation of federal Privacy Act laws.

The first team is from Data Forté, and according to Reuters it's led by "a former special agent with the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service". The company specialises in the "preservation and collection of electronic evidence", and has experience with similar cases, having helped prosecute hackers responsible for data theft from a "major motion picture studio".

The second team is from Guidance Software, a data security firm. While specialising in the training of staff and the selling of corporate data protection software, Guidance has dispatched a number of "cyber-security detectives" from its ranks to help in the investigation.

The third company, Protiviti, is not involved in trying to catch those responsible. Instead, as a company specialising in things like audits, it is providing consultants to help Sony "clean up" the mess left by the attack and the fact the PSN has been down for over a week.

Reached for comment this morning, Sony Computer Entertainment of America spokesman Patrick Seybold said that Sony is cooperating with the committee.

"Sony is cooperating with the request for answers to the Committee's questions, and in fact will be providing our responses in advance of the deadline," he wrote in an email to Kotaku. "We informed the committee that we could not appear as early as this Wednesday because of our ongoing intensive investigation and management of this criminal cyberattack."

I'm not allowed enough space to truly get down to the essence of lackadaisical trash this game is, but dear, sweet Lord, I'm going to try.

Finally, after less than six hours of gameplay time, you find yourself in a showdown with Adams himself, who, not to be outdone by your supersuit, turns into an armored alien himself, and you fight him. He chases you around in a circle, and you shoot him a bunch. Then, when you win, your magic metal ball goes crazy, another conduit opens, and Abraham Lincoln comes out and tells you he's there to help. Then the credits roll.

Sorry for the spoiler, friends, but I can't not talk about it. I would swear it's Abraham Lincoln in a space marine suit. Even Ford says something like, "What the ... you're ..." and then he gets cut off. I'm pretty sure that if he were allowed to finish his sentence, he would have said, "What the ... you're ... 16th President of the United States Abraham Lincoln!" But then, the game is over, setting it up nicely for Conduit 3: Space Lincoln & The Emancipators of the Universe.

The graphics are a mess. Faces are badly pixelated, even in cutscenes. The only smooth, 2011 graphics are in the final cutscene. It's the only one fully-rendered. I'm absolutely not joking. The dialogue doesn't match with the lip movements of the characters. The spaceships look like they were lifted directly out of Halo: Combat Evolved, not to mention the "Siberia" map, which looks like B-roll from one of Bungie's snow-covered maps.

Speaking of the voice-acting, I can't say enough bad about it. Three of the main characters sound exactly the same. So much so that I had to pay attention to the credits to make sure they weren't. A few of the actors seem to think the game is an inside joke, and the rest don't. I'm not sure they all even had the same script. And to top it all off? I'm fairly sure the supreme female alien is voiced by a dude. I can't make this stuff up.

The creativity of the level design is ... well, it's non-existent. I know players complain about FPS games having the same maps over and over, or every room looking the same, but only Conduit 2 does it and has the guts to comment on it three-quarters of the way through. Ford asks, "Hey, wasn't I just in here?" and your little metal ball gives a big explanation about companies saving money on construction by making rooms very similar, "like they sometimes do in modern video games." Ha-ha! It's okay as long as it makes fun of itself, right?

That reminds me: The Wiimote controls are akin to trying to hold a drink steady while the train you're riding in crashes. The Classic Controller was steadier, and made the buttons easier to reach, but made the reticule move so slowly, it was way too tough to target anything before I was eaten by monsters.

I think these guys are bullshitting us. If its a different, independent network than it would require a separate attack. Even if they were coordinated to occur simultaneously, this sounds like then it qualifies as... a second attack.

Not necessarily. If you get into the first network, from within you basically hack through to the next next network, FROM that first network. That whole process would all be considered just one attack just at various layers. The last network will assume you are coming from the next tier up. I've done this 'legit' at my own company, with passwords, when I couldn't get our VPN working to get to a dev system. It's basically the same concept.

Not necessarily. If you get into the first network, from within you basically hack through to the next next network, FROM that first network. That whole process would all be considered just one attack just at various layers. The last network will assume you are coming from the next tier up. I've done this 'legit' at my own company, with passwords, when I couldn't get our VPN working to get to a dev system. It's basically the same concept.

Ah, ok.

Of course, that situation doesn't sound any better than a "second attack".

Sony chief information officer, Shinji Hasejima (pictured), this week confessed at a Tokyo press conference that security measures could have been improved.
“The vulnerability [of the network] was a known vulnerability, one known of in the world. But Sony was not aware of it... was not convinced of it,” he said.
“We are now trying to improve aspects of it”.

Yet for me, the single most important question is simply this: Why weren’t Sony’s customers notified sooner of the cyberattack? I fundamentally believe that all consumers have a right to know when their personal information has been compromised, and Sony - as well as all other companies—have an overriding responsibility to alert them... immediately.

So how did the attackers gain entrance? Around two weeks ago, Sony was defending itself against constant denial of service attacks, and it seems the entirety of their online team was busy dealing with that threat.

"Detection was difficult because of the sheer sophistication of the intrusion," Sony wrote in the letter. "Second, detection was difficult because the criminal hackers exploited a system software vulnerability." Sony also claims that because its team was so busy defending against the denial of service attacks, detection of the hack was even more difficult. Sony claimed that this was "perhaps by design."

Sony also claimed it found a files on its server named "Anonymous," with the text "We are Legion." The document also places the blame of the denial of service attacks directly on Anonymous.

"In any case, those who participated in the denial of service attacks should understand that—whether they knew it or not—they were aiding in a well-planned, well-executed, large-scale theft that not only left Sony a victim, but also Sony's many customers around the world," Sony stated.

According to PS3 hacker and cop-magnet Graf Chokolo, OtherOS++ can "read or write anything" and is "very useful" for HV hacking. It exploits an older Firmware version and allows the user to control the PS3's memory and systems to a far greater degree than the original OtherOS feature.

I think these guys are bullshitting us. If its a different, independent network than it would require a separate attack. Even if they were coordinated to occur simultaneously, this sounds like then it qualifies as... a second attack.

... when a company like Sony completely tries to bulls#it their way out of trouble thinking everyone is stupid enough to fall for it. Then they try to offer some lame compensation package as a cheap ass apology. Gimme a break!

If a legitimate and honest investigation into the credit card is conducted, Anonymous will not be found liable. While we are a distributed and decentralized group, our "leadership" does not condone credit card theft. We are concerned with erosion of privacy and fair use, the spread of corporate feudalism, the abuse of power and the justifications of executives and leaders who believe themselves immune personally and financially for the actions they undertake in the name of corporations and public office.

Anunymous will continue its work in support of transparency and individual liberty; our adversaries will continue their work in support of secrecy and control. The FBI will continue to investigate us for crimes of civil disobedience while continuing to ignore the crimes planned by major corporations which use their services.

Either there is no meaningful link between playing violent video games and aggressive behavior, or FIFA 11 is deadlier than Modern Warfare.

Or it could be the fact that, in a five-minute span, an experienced player can rack up 20 kills in a shooter, whereas a 3-0 result in a 90-minute football game is considered high scoring, making those goals a ton more significant than killing a zombie.

A federal judge on Monday threw out a former college quarterback's claim against EA Sports, regarding the use of his likeness in past versions of NCAA Football. While the ruling clears Electronic Arts in a legal sense, Samuel Keller's claims still will proceed against the NCAA and the Collegiate Licensing Company, and the outcome still could have ramifications for the popular sports video game.

Wilken, however, did not grant the NCAA and CLC's motions to dismiss Keller's suit, which involves matters such as right to publicity and antitrust law. That case will proceed. For gamers, a ruling in Keller's favor still could alter how the rosters in NCAA Football are populated.

Yes, NCAA players, you are getting ****ed, but its not EAs fault. This time.

Today we are pleased to let you in on new exclusive PlayStation 3 content for Virtua Tennis 4. Playable from the moment you load up the game, PS3 tennis fans will be able to get their hands on tennis legends Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and Pat Rafter. There will also be two exclusive mini-games: Pin Crusher and Net Blitz.

Alright, I've had enough. I don't have any reason to dislike Sony (outside of that debut pricing), but I'm actually starting to hate them for this shit. Arkham Asylum, LA Noire, Mortal Kombat... not only are they adding exclusive piddling content, but they seem to be purposely locking the XBOX out (i.e., Mortal Kombat wasn't allowed to add an XBOX exclusive fighter).

The best part is, the strategy doesn't even make sense. Their 1st party exclusives are the big selling appeal for the system. Unless they're trying to goose multiplatform game sales (which are, admittedly skewed in favor of the 360) I don't see the point. If your customer already owns a PS3 and a 360, what are you gaining here exactly?

Could you imagine if MS secured the rights to one completely exclusive map pack for CoD players (rather than time exclusive)? This is bullocks, and more anti-gamer than anything else.

"I know some believe we should have notified our customers earlier than we did. It's a fair question," he writes. "I wish we could have gotten the answers we needed sooner, but forensic analysis is a complex, time-consuming process. Hackers, after all, do their best to cover their tracks, and it took some time for our experts to find those tracks and begin to identify what personal information had -- or had not -- been taken."

"Presumably, both companies are large enough that they could have afforded to spend an appropriate amount on security and privacy protections of their data; I have no information about what protections they had in place, although some news reports indicate that Sony was running software that was badly out of date, and had been warned about that risk."

According to the announcement, Sony is in "the final stages of internal testing of the new system, an important step towards restoring PlayStation Network and Qriocity services." The company didn't go so far as to estimate when PSN will be back online for everyone, but it's calling this a "milestone" in the process, so we'll hopefully learn more soon.

In the latest turn of events involving the theft of personal data for millions of PlayStation Network users, Sony has announced that it is partnering with Debix to offer 12 months of identity theft protection free of charge. Debix's "AllClear ID" protection will be made available to PSN and Qriocity account holders in the US, with the console maker "working to make similar programs available in other countries/territories where applicable."

It's not a free game, but seems like a fair bit of compensation to me.

According to an unnamed source speaking to Develop, development kits for a new Microsoft console are in the offices of one of EA's studios. The source, which does not work for either EA or Microsoft, had no specific information about the hardware except that it came in a PC shell and was shipped to EA last month.

That little information is actually enough to rule out the updated Xbox 360 dev kits revealed last month, since those come in Xbox-shaped cases. The source believes ("but did not have certain information," Develop disclaims) the new console will launch at the end of 2012, which would put it in direct competition with the Wii successor, and, if true, would make an E3 reveal seem likely (again, to compete with the new Nintendo console).

However, a Eurogamer source responded to this Develop article to note that a new Microsoft console probably won't be revealed at E3.

I feel like if the E3 reveal isn't gonna happen, it'll be in MS' best interest to quash the rumor by Monday.

As Burnout Crash makes its world tour of ratings boards, we're learning more about EA's racing game -- still in advance of any official announcement. According to the ESRB, Burnout Crash is coming to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and features a distinctly non-realistic style.

"From a top-down perspective," the content description reads, "players initiate crashes by driving 'cartoony' vehicles (e.g., cars, trucks, vans, buses) into busy intersections; multiple crashes trigger score multipliers and rack up large 'bills' of property damage." The description also reveals levels that urge players to destroy police cars before they are able to arrest you, and other levels in which you have to avoid UFOs, tornadoes and "lobster monsters."

Sony has today revealed that a website publishing the names and partial addresses of 2,500 consumers was discovered and promptly taken down by the company this past week. The details were taken as part of the ongoing PSN hack situation.

The details belonged to users who had entered a 2001 sweepstakes contest, and no credit card information was published alongside them. It would appear that, while unsettling, the publication of these names and addresses have caused no further harm.

"The website was out of date and inactive when discovered as part of the continued attacks on Sony," said Sony, before claiming that it had the site taken down.

That is very strange and disconcerting. Not sure what motivation hackers would have to publish PSN name and addresses, or why they would use such an obscure list. Anonymous better pray this is unconnected to them, because what little goodwill they have around part of the internet is going to evaporate and be replaced by a much more widespread contempt.

"When we held the press conference in Japan last week, based on what we knew, we expected to have the services online within a week," said Patrick Seybold. "We were unaware of the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment servers, and we are taking this opportunity to conduct further testing of the incredibly complex system.

"We know many of you are wanting to play games online, chat with your friends and enjoy all of the services PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have to offer, and trust me when I say we’re doing everything we can to make it happen. We will update you with more information as soon as we have it. We apologize for the delay and inconvenience of this network outage."

While Sony works to restore components of PlayStation Network and its Qriocity music service, a Tokyo-based representative of the company projects that both will be fully restored by the end of May. Speaking to Bloomberg, Shigenori Yushida stated that a complete reboot of Sony's online suite would be initiated by May 31. What exactly comes on before then remains to be seen.

Sony aimed to re-launch some services (including Home, chat functionality and friends lists) during last week, but delayed its plans in order to finalize testing of what it claims is a reconstructed and more secure network. For the time being, Sony will likely focus on getting new PS3 firmware out to allow users to update their usernames and passwords, and restoring online gaming, which has been deactivated since April 20.

I wouldn't call it BS, but I suspect this is more a "guesstimate" more than a firm prediction. Internally, I imagine Sony is doing everything in its power to make sure it's running completely by E3 as that would be damned embarrassing.

There's a small part of me that had a conspiracy theory that Sony knew it'd take forever but wasn't up front about it because the last thing you want to do is tell all your customers they're going to be offline for a month and then watch them run to the arms of your competitor.

Should you lack Kuma War II, which on Saturday published a free episode recreating the raid on Osama bin Laden's final hiding spot, you may also download a free map of the Abottabad complex created with Counter Strike: Source

If it wasn't for Minecraft, I think I'd be panicking and a lot angrier about the PSN situation. I've only turned on my PS3 to play an actual game once during this time, and it's because watching Sunday Night Baseball once again spurred my interest in MLB 11.

CNET has learned that our publication of the group's plan may have caused Sony to secure the remaining servers this group claims it had access to, shutting off any avenues for another attack.

Wrote one of the members in the Internet Relay Chat channel the group uses, "Apparently Sony saw that article because the last server that I could access is offline now...its probbaly (sic) being patched like the other servers. There goes our window."

Unlike the Delaware filing, the Washington one lists Bungie president Harold Ryan and head of strategy and corporate development Ondraus Jenkins as "governing persons" of the new for profit business. Rather than mirroring their current roles at Bungie, though, it appears that Ryan will be acting as "director" of Bungie Aerospace Corporation while Jenkins will be acting "president." Also listed is secretary director Allan Parsons, which is either a joke reference to The Alan Parsons Project, or an alternative name for executive producer Pete Parsons, or an outside hire with no Google-logged experience in the game industry (believe us, we tried).

More shocking to me is IGN is owned by News Corp. That explains a lot...

Originally Posted by Jawbone54

I'm glad you guys turned me on to Joystiq. I've enjoyed them a lot better than the other sites, especially post-redesign Kotaku.

Joystiq has some of the best quality, but the lag most of its articles have is pretty undermining.

(That kotaku's new design breaks link titling is just another quill in it's cap)

Oh, while we're talking, did the ESPN3 thing again this weekend, cockblocked again. Found out the strange delays in games (Miami got four days off, Bulls played twice in that span) is for ****ing scheduling. Ugh. Also, they've kept the Heat games locked down on ABC the entire playoffs, effectively blacking out any possibility of live-streaming. All very disheartening.

More shocking to me is IGN is owned by News Corp. That explains a lot...

Obligatory News Corps joke.

Oh, while we're talking, did the ESPN3 thing again this weekend, cockblocked again. Found out the strange delays in games (Miami got four days off, Bulls played twice in that span) is for ****ing scheduling. Ugh. Also, they've kept the Heat games locked down on ABC the entire playoffs, effectively blacking out any possibility of live-streaming. All very disheartening.

Apparently, watching Game 3 in the Mavs/Lakers series wasn't so bad, according to my brother. I'll continue to be disappointed with the service until every ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 game is available on ESPN3.

Also, I nearly lost my mind yesterday afternoon. I've never seen a team shoot that well over the course of a game, particularly Jason Terry. I watched it with my family, and we went from jumping around and high fiving to sitting with our mouths agape. Simmons keeps going on about how favorable of a matchup Memphis would be for Dallas, so I'm already salivating over a good vs. evil Dallas/Miami possibility.

Bitmob reports that Sony's PSN servers were running the most recent version of the Apache server software when they were hit, countering testimony made to the US Congress claiming that the PSN was running "very old versions of Apache software that were unpatched and had no firewall installed." That testimony was admittedly based on second-hand information.

Using Google's webcache, a member of the Beyond3D forums showed that as of March 23, Sony was running version 2.2.17, which was the latest stable version. If you're so inclined, you can double-check the process of B3D's "deathindustrial."

It appears that Anonymous have trouble in their ranks – not that they had ranks to begin with, in fact that’s the problem. The following has been posted on a hacking site:

‘We regret to inform you today that our network has been compromised by a former IRC-operator and fellow helper named “Ryan”. He decided that he didn’t like the leaderless command structure that AnonOps Network Admins use. So he organised a coup d’etat, with his “friends” at skidsr.us . Using the networks service bot “Zalgo” he scavenged the IP’s and passwords of all the network servers (including the hub) and then systematically aimed denial of service attacks at them.’

Sony was targeted by a DOS attack and now Anonymous’ own members have used the same tools to bring down their IRC network.

Capcom has confessed that the PlayStation Network breach and subsequent downtime cost the company "hundreds and thousands" of dollars, which could easily become millions.

"I’m frustrated and upset by [the outage] for a number of reasons," admitted Chris Svensson. "As a consumer, I also play games online on PS3, which I can’t do ... and likely my personal information is also compromised. Secondly I like to buy things in the PlayStation Store and that I can’t do right now.

"As an executive responsible for running a business, the resulting outage [is] obviously costing us hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in revenue that were planned for within our budget. These are funds we rely on to bring new games to market for our fans."

Someone pointed out that the real irony is 99% of their DLC is already on the disc, so you don't even need to download it.

Even before that new app smell has worn off from Hulu Plus, Microsoft will launch its annual spring update for the Xbox 360 Dashboard. Images sent to Joystiq by a Microsoft tech support employee reveal that the next Dashboard update will begin rolling out on May 19.

According to the documents, the update will be distributed in six separate waves between May 19 and May 30 "to ensure a high quality deployment." Additionally, while not technically part of the automatic update, Avatar Kinect is listed for a May 27 arrival as a separate download.

Aside from offering support for the new Microsoft disc format -- which will "be used in future game titles releasing later in 2011" -- the spring system update will enable PayPal support, extending the payment option "to new international markets." PayPal will be "the only user facing feature" of the update

Oh **** you

Circulating on NeoGAF from GameStop

Members-Only Exclusive!

Purchase a new 160 or 320 GB Sony PlayStation 3 between now and Sunday, May 29, and get $100 off*!

This hot deal requires a coupon to receive the discount, but we've got you covered! Look for the coupon in your Active Offers section of your PowerUp Rewards account. Simply log in, print your members-only coupon, and get to your nearest GameStop store.

Haven't seen all the PlayStation 3 can do? Check out full product details for the 160GB and 320GB systems to help you decide. We think both are stunning in black!

In one anecdote, former Capcom exec Keiji Inafune illustrates how he got so high up in the company and the kind of behavior that likely led to his hasty exit. During a presentation at Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University, the Neptunia Mk-II weapon dished on the corporate culture at Capcom, and how he gamed it to get Lost Planet and Dead Rising made.

Before those games, he said, Capcom had a rule requiring 70-80 percent of the games produced at the company to be sequels, and the management rejected pitches for new titles even beyond that proportion. Inafune started up two new projects, Lost Planet and Dead Rising, and just kept them going even after the prototypes were rejected.

Eventually, he exceeded the budget for Lost Planet's prototype by 400%, figuring that Capcom wouldn't cancel it if the game was half done. The strategy worked: both titles made it to retail, and started franchises that have sold over four million units each.

That takes huevos.

Also,the best part:

Inafune was already well known for a successful act of guerrilla game-making. After Mega Man, his team was famously only allowed to develop Mega Man 2 if they did so on their own time, without affecting the schedules of other projects.

During an investors call today, Activision announced that 1.4 million copies of Call of Duty: Black Ops' "First Strike" map pack were sold "in the first 24 hours" of its February 1 debut on Xbox Live. At $15 a pop, that's $21 million in gross revenue in a single day -- on a single platform!

Notably, Activision Publishing's Eric Hirshberg pointed out that those sales were a "20 percent increase over Modern Warfare 2's 'Stimulus Package DLC'" launch. He added that First Strike, which was also released on PSN and PC in March, "continues to outsell the Stimulus Pack by more than 20 percent."

The microtransaction-based Call of Duty game Activision is making for China, first announced in a February investor conference call (and in the presentation that went along with it) is, at least for now, unlikely to leave China. Though, of course, the door's open.

Answering a question during an investor conference call, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick called the game "specific for the Chinese audiences," and clarified, "The product that we announced today is being developed just for China." Kotick added, "That's not to say it might not have applicability elsewhere, but what we're doing right now is focused on China."

I know you all want to know exactly when the services will be restored. At this time, I can’t give you an exact date, as it will likely be at least a few more days. We’re terribly sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work through this process.

Every person who has played a game in the Gears beta will receive a buddy token. Additional ways to obtain a token are by purchasing any Gears content off the Xbox Live Marketplace or by adding a 12-month Xbox Live Gold subscription to your account. Tokens can also be earned by having played 20 hours or more of the Gears 3 beta -- time already spent does count -- and by playing more than 100 hours of "any Gears of War title, lifetime to date."

Players have until May 4 (this Wednesday!) to complete the tasks and earn up to five tokens. Participants don't need to take any addition action for their tokens, and the alpha-numeric codes will be distributed by email starting May 8 (so make sure your account details are up to date). This will give players a week to team up with their buddies for some Gears 3 action before the beta ends on May 15.

*cough* I'll take an invite.

Originally Posted by Stogieman

I might be close to 100 hours on Gears 2. I need to check when I get home.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar

That's a little more than 4 days worth of time. I'm sure you got that.

Beta closes in 5 days and I still have not received a token. From the Gears of war website:

"In celebration of launch on May 17," the newsletter teases, "take your L.A. Noire experience to the next level and download the 'L.A. Noire Rockstar Pass' add-on." The Rockstar Pass what now?

Releasing day and date with the retail game, the 800-point DLC "Pass" is presumably a sort of Project Ten Dollar experiment. It's unclear, however, if it will provide access to the pre-order bonus content (already confirmed to be made available for purchase "at some point after the game comes out") or offer wholly new content to all owners of the game. Perhaps it's a sort of Cerberus Network-like pipeline for delivering new detective cases -- but that's just a guess. The Pass remains a mystery for now, as Rockstar has yet to respond to our request for clarification.

No one knows what the hell this thing is. LA Noire has no online multiplayer, leaving some to surmise this gets you access to the cluster**** of exclusive pre-order content, but $10 is a little pricey for a couple of cases, not to mention, pretty damned shitty.

Kotaku has confirmed the findings of a Reddit user who deciphered the hidden meaning behind the barcode appearing in the first teaser trailer for Hitman: Absolution.

This is a mystery you can uncover on your own. Take the inverted image of the barcode from the video, which I've included here, and download a free barcode scanner to your smartphone. I used Lynkee on my Windows Phone 7, and soon the truth was staring me in the face.

The short answer is NSFWish, the long answer is I can't believe that was done by accident or on purpose.

European clothing giant TopShop ran a little test in a Moscow store recently: hook a Kinect camera up to a mirror and let the ladies try on clothes without having to actually try them on.

It sounds good in theory, and in some instances looks good in theory, but its practical use is limited somewhat by the fact they're at an actual store. With change rooms available, and the clothes actually in their hands. Why see a poorly-fitting virtual representation of an outfit when you can walk ten metres and see what it looks like in the flesh?

The running subplot for kinect appears to be that the real world finds it 10x more useful than game developers.

(
Last edited by The Final Dakar; May 11, 2011 at 11:58 AM.
Reason: I am a god amongst men)